1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to position or location estimations of mobile communication devices and, more particularly, to selective crowdsourcing of location-related data.
2. Information
Mobile communication devices, such as, for example, cellular telephones, portable navigation units, laptop computers, personal digital assistants, or the like are becoming more common every day. Certain mobile communication devices, such as, for example, location-aware cellular telephones, smart telephones, or the like may assist users in estimating their geographic locations by providing positioning assistance data obtained or gathered from various systems. For example, in an outdoor environment, certain mobile communication devices may obtain an estimate of their geographic location or so-called “position fix” by acquiring wireless signals from a satellite positioning system (SPS), such as the global positioning system (GPS) or other like Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), cellular base station, etc. via a cellular telephone or other wireless communications network. Acquired wireless signals may, for example, be processed by or at a mobile communication device, and its location may be estimated using known techniques, such as Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (AFLT), base station identification, or the like.
In an indoor environment, certain mobile communication devices may be unable to reliably receive or acquire satellite or like wireless signals to facilitate or support one or more position estimation techniques. As such, in an indoor environment, different techniques may be employed to enable navigation or location services. For example, at times, an indoor location of a mobile communication device may be estimated via radio heatmap signature matching, in which current characteristics of wireless signals received at the mobile device are compared with expected or previously measured signal characteristics stored as heatmap values in a database. By finding a signature in a database that most closely matches characteristics exhibited by wireless signals received at a mobile device, a location associated with a matching signature may be used as an estimated location of a mobile device. In some instances, however, a data collection process, such as to facilitate or support subsequent radio heatmap signature matching, for example, may be prone to a considerable amount of data redundancy or asymmetry.